


dearly

by ivelostmyspectacles



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Past Character Death, Post-Episode Ignis Verse 2, World of Ruin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-13
Packaged: 2019-05-21 18:20:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14920496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/ivelostmyspectacles
Summary: Ignis and Ravus visit Sylva's grave.





	dearly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [harpylatte](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpylatte/gifts).



_“Those we love don't go away. They walk beside us every day. Unseen, unheard but always near. Still loved, still missed, and very dear.”_   


The scent of flowers was thick in the air as he stepped into the manor; the fragrance was delicate, subtle enough to not be overpowering as he walked the familiar pathways to Ravus’s rooms. It was like the first breath of spring air after cold winter, when the trees and plants were just beginning to blossom. Sweet and soft. There was almost something… melancholic about it. In the same way he’d learned the chords on the piano, the notes that could tremble and linger in the air in a way that made your heart ache. Very similar to that.

It was almost familiar asides that, in a way. Ignis couldn’t put his finger on _why_ exactly, though.

The door was open. There was no staff to guide him, even though he knew his way, and no one to announce his presence. Still, after all the repeated visits, he wouldn’t intrude without warning. He rapped his knuckles against the doorframe instead. “Ravus.”

Ravus straightened up from where he was crouched over a basket of the flowers. Ah, now Ignis understood why they seemed familiar. Sylleblossoms. Although he had been led to believe that the last time those had blossomed had been before the attack on Tenebrae. He remembered that Noct had mentioned the fields were ablaze when they had passed through, almost two years ago now.

Of course, he barely had time to think all of that before a tan blur of fur came bounding over to him, barking as it jumped up to brace its paws on his legs.

“Aurora– _no!_ Get down!”

Ignis laughed, crouching down to ruffle the dog’s fur. “She’s just excited to see me.”

Ravus sighed, hesitating before he turned back to the flowers. “I’m attempting to teach her not to jump up. A poor endeavour,” he muttered.

“Yes, dogs do behave a little differently than the actual messengers of the gods, don’t they?” He scratched behind Aurora’s ears, and then snapped his fingers. “Sit down.”

Aurora barked and flopped over.

“Well, a work in progress,” Ignis mused, straightening up.

“She listens better to you than to me,” Ravus mumbled, sorting through the basket.

“Between the two of us, she might just listen one day,” Ignis said.

He had the vague notion something was _wrong,_ something he wasn’t seeing. Ravus wasn’t usually one for great displays of affection, a fact of which Ignis didn’t mind in the least, but he was usually greeted at the door, at the very least. Stopping next to the former prince didn’t draw his attention, and there was tension in his shoulders that had gone unseen from the doorway. “Ravus?”

“Hm?”

He chose his phrasing carefully. “Something the matter?” A point blank accusation would only set Ravus further on edge, as tenuous as both of their relationships with _emotion_ were.

“I’m fine.” Ravus paused, hands stilling over the wispy blue petals. “It is… a trifle in the scheme of things.”

“But?” Ignis prompted gently.

“… it seems I’d forgotten the anniversary of my mother’s death,” he said, and Ignis’s heart sank as Ravus continued to sort the sylleblossoms. “Together, Lunafreya and I would take these flowers to her grave each year.”

It was with a cringe that Ignis dropped his fingers to press to Ravus’s shoulder. The man rarely shared details about his family– he had rarely spoken of Lady Lunafreya immediately following her death, either– but somehow Ignis thought that that was something he ought to have _known._ “I’m sorry, Ravus.”

A jerk of his head. “It was my mistake. Think nothing of it.”

Difficult to do that, when Ravus had that indescribable look on his face, one that Ignis was certain he wouldn’t be permitted to see if he were anyone else. He looked between Ravus and his meticulous work, and then leaned forward to scoop Ravus’s hair out of his face and from his neck. “Here,” he murmured, tying it back with the length of ribbon he kept in his pocket. “If you’d permit me, I can help in sorting through those with you.”

He wondered if it were such a strange question, given the look that Ravus raised his head to give him. Perhaps it were too invasive, given the subject. Ravus was almost _ogling_ him, in his own piercing way. A flyaway strand of hair fell into his eyes again as he tilted his head.

“Sorting to find the best ones.” Ignis nodded to the basket. “To take to her grave. If you’d rather do it alone, I unders–”

“No,” Ravus interrupted. “Feel free,” he said slowly, eyebrows furrowed.

It still wasn’t a look that precisely put Ignis’s nerves at ease, mind. “You’re sure?”

Ravus nodded, once. All fire and determination again as he moved aside, making room for Ignis as he sat down properly. “Yes.”

It wasn’t much, he supposed, but he folded down next to him and took great care in picking out the very best sylleblossoms for Sylva Via Fleuret.

He wasn’t aware Ravus was watching him work until he spoke. “You’re welcome to visit her grave with me.”

Ignis nearly dropped the flowers he was holding.

“Unless you’ve something pressing today,” Ravus continued, and turned back to their growing selection.

For someone who rarely spoke of his family, an invitation to tend his mother’s grave was a _shock._ And then Ignis was pleased and _nervous_ in turns, because… he _had_ just quietly asked him accompany him to his mother’s grave, but he also had just said it was something only he and Lady Lunafreya had done. To step into the place that his sister had once occupied…  

“Are you certain?” he asked, setting down the sylleblossom. “I wouldn’t wish to impose–”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I was not certain,” Ravus muttered. It was nearly said sotto voce, attention solely turned away. He raised his voice only slightly to continue. “I’d enjoy your company.”

“… I’d be honored, then.” There was no room for indecision, when Ravus said it like _that._ He couldn’t possibly say no. That odd sense of nerves aside, he wouldn’t have wanted to, anyway.

If Ravus seemed to breath out a sigh of relief, Ignis didn’t say a word.

  


The monument still stood firm after Niflheim’s repeated attacks. It was a beautiful thing, so much more than bonded marble and etched words. Perhaps what spoke the loudest was Ravus’s silence, and the reverence on his face when he looked up at it as he knelt by Ignis’s side.

Ignis bowed his head, murmured a prayer to the gods he had long since stopped believing in. Maybe Ravus still did. Maybe Sylva once had. Maybe it didn’t matter. He said the words nonetheless.

“… she would have liked you,” Ravus said eventually. He was watching him again, closely enough that it would have made Ignis squirm had it not been for his getting used to close scrutiny from when he was younger. Still…

“I’m sure I would have liked her as well,” he said, and if anything that happened during the day would have made Sylva smile, Ignis reckoned it would have been the tiny smile on Ravus’s face when he said those words.

**Author's Note:**

> part two for Eva!
> 
>  
> 
> also fun fact totally hc that Aurora is Ravus's dog but he and Ignis picked her out together, and agreed on the name together because Aurora = dawn (ie goddess of dawn ie Eos) anyway they knew the name fit the moment one of them suggested it don't mind me


End file.
